The present study reports data on absorption of orally administered glutathione (GSH) in rat jejunum and in other organs, and the possible role of specific transport systems of GSH and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (EC 2.3.2.1; gamma-GT) activity. GSH levels were measured simultaneously in various organs after oral GSH administration to untreated rats and rats treated with L-buthionine sulfoximi...

Chemotherapy failure remains a significant medical problem in the treatment of neoplastic disease and is thought to be due to many different factors including membrane transport, p-glycoprotein in multidrug resistance, glutathione and its related enzymes, topoisomerase II and DNA repair. Glutathione is a major constituent of non-protein thiol and participates in detoxification of chemotherapy a...

BACKGROUND Although reduced glutathione (rGSH) is decreased in obese mice and humans, block of GSH synthesis by buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) results in a lean, insulin-sensitive phenotype. Data is lacking about the effect of BSO on GSH precursors, cysteine and glutamate. Plasma total cysteine (tCys) is positively associated with stearoyl-coenzyme A desaturase (SCD) activity and adiposity in hum...

This study examined the effects of 10 days of buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) treatment on in vitro contractility and sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium pump (SERCA) expression and function in adult (AD; 6-8 months old) and middle aged (MA; 14-17 months old) rat diaphragm in both the basal state and following fatiguing stimulation. BSO treatment reduced the cellular concentrations of free glutathione ...

Repeated daily dosing of rats with the occupational chemical 4- vinylcyclohexene or its diepoxide metabolite (VCD) for 15 days destroys the smallest ovarian follicles. VCD acutely reduced hepatic levels of the antioxidant, glutathione (GSH); therefore, these studies were designed to evaluate whether GSH concentrations mediate VCD-induced ovotoxicity. Immature female Fischer 344 rats were dosed ...

Effect of glutathione (GSH) depletion on paraquat (PQ) toxicity in the liver and kidneys of mice was examined. Glutamic-pyruvate transaminase (GPT) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels in plasma of mice were hardly changed by treatment with 150 micro mol/kg of PQ. However, significant increases in the plasma GPT and BUN levels after PQ injection were observed in mice which were pretreated with ...

Adipose tissue metabolically adapts to external stimuli. We demonstrate that the induction of the thermogenic program in white adipocytes, through cold exposure in mice or in vitro adrenergic stimulation, is accompanied by a decrease in the intracellular content of glutathione (GSH). Moreover, the treatment with a GSH depleting agent, buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), recapitulates the effect of co...

Dopaminergic neurons in culture are preferentially resistant to the toxicity of glutathione (GSH) depletion. This effect may be due to high intrinsic levels of tetrahydrobiopterin (BH(4)). Here we studied the effects of manipulating GSH and/or BH(4) levels on selective neurotoxicity in organotypic nigrostriatal slice cultures. Following treatments with L-buthionine sulfoximine (BSO, 10-100 micr...

Glutathione (GSH) is an important factor involved in the resistance of tumor cells to anticancer agents. Buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), a specific inhibitor of GSH synthesis, effectively decreases cellular GSH concentrations both in vitro and in vivo. Depletion of GSH by BSO sensitizes a variety of cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agents. Therefore, BSO has been on clinical trial as an anticance...

Our previous studies on active constituents of Nigella sativa have indicated that cell death induced by thymoquinone and alpha-hederin was dose- and time-dependent, in a range of four cancer cell lines. Both compounds elicited necrosis and apoptosis with a higher incidence of the latter induced by thymoquinone. As HEp-2 human laryngeal carcinoma cells were the most susceptible, we sought to bet...